Sunday, June 29, 2008

Christina from A Mommy Story is a Loser Too

Check us out! Another guest post. Please give a warm round of applause to Christina from A Mommy Story:


I'm A Loser, But Not Losing

Some may know that I've been on a Hot by BlogHer quest for a few months now. How's it going? Well, uh... it's stalled. I've made some changes to my eating habits - less junk, more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, etc. - although emotional eating is still a downfall for me. However, that isn't the real problem. What I'm lacking in is exercise.

I've lost about 10 pounds, but I've been stuck at the same weight for a few weeks now. I'm sure the problem is that I'm eating better, but doing nothing to rev up my metabolism and convince my body to let go of a few pounds. We had a gym membership for the last year. Know how often we went? Never. I know - insane, right? I only wish I could have that money back.

My biggest excuse for not exercising is my children. I fully accept it's an excuse. Trying to find someone to watch them or packing them up and taking them to the gym's babysitting seemed like too much of a hassle. So I decided it was time to take away my excuse.

No, I didn't get rid of my children. (Good guess, though!)

Meet my new friend:


We acquired this elliptical machine from a used sporting good store before Aaron was laid off. Actually, it was our birthday gift from my mom, so we didn't pay anything for it. And yes, the gate must remain around it at all times, because our daughters do not share my aversion to exercise, and will try to kill themselves on it if I let them.

I can't escape exercise now. It sits in the corner staring at me as I eat, a reminder of what I should be doing. When I eat ice cream, I can't look up without feeling guilty. If the kids are awake, I can fire up the Tivo for them and get at least a half hour in. That is, if I could do an entire half hour on it. I didn't realize just how out of shape I was until I worked out for the first time.

I lasted 5 minutes.

This machine has several programs, but I like the steps program. You can set a goal of 500 steps, 1000 steps, or any other increment of 500. I started with 500. After two weeks (only twice a week at this point) I'm now up to 1500 steps, which I think is a great improvement. My goal is to eventually get to 10,000 steps.

I've got less than a month until BlogHer, so it's time to put my Hot by BlogHer plan into overdrive and make these last days count. I'd like to at least break through this plateau and lose a couple more pounds before the big event, and I think my new elliptical machine may be that kickstart I needed.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Angry at vegetables. Why?

In the previous post Sarah was looking for recipe ideas and Susan jumped right in and had some suggestions. And as I was reading her response I felt my shoulders tense. A wave of annoyance washed over me. Not because Susan said anything wrong. She didn't. I do not have it in for Susan. Quite the opposite, Susan and her husband are kindred spirits.

Steamed vegetables. I hate them. But here is the weird thing. I don't hate preparing them,I don't hate eating them. I just hate THEM. Utterly irrational.

Steamed vegetables are supposed to be a staple when anyone is trying to drop some lb's. An aside from now on I am going to call them El Bees. I just made that decision. For some reason I cannot explain, steamed vegetables annoy me. I have a similar response to unloading the dishwasher. It just pisses me off and I don't really have a legitimate reason.

I probably need to do some rage work to get beyond my negativity.

Mashed potatoes sound so much more therapeutic.

Friday, June 20, 2008

ISO: Good Recipes

So I'm having this problem.

I know I have mentioned this before, but while I am doing really well with the whole exercise thing I am having issues with food.

I have two recipes that I like from back in my weight watchers days. One is for turnkey burritos and the other is that vegetable soup.

Now I am at a loss.

See, it isn't just me here. I have a husband and a roommate that I need to feed to. I can't make them eat salads and yogurt every single night.

Do you have any great healthy and tasty recipes? If so, please hook a lady up.

Sore

Vionna worked us out especially hard yesterday.

It hurts to walk up my stairs.

I guess that means I can't do any laundry today.

Rats.

:)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

I'm on my weigh!


Every Tuesday and Thursday, I meet Sarah at her house and we drive into The DC together to meet with Vionna. This morning in the car I was bastardizing Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' "The Waiting" by changing the words in my head to "The Weigh-In is the hardest part...." I tend to do that a lot. I make up my own words to songs. I've done it as long as I can remember. Even before this guy became famous.

This isn't the same as mishearing lyrics, which my friend Huh?used to do when we were in high school. We nicknamed her "Huh?" because sometimes she just didn't seem to get it despite being a really bright girl. Maybe you recognize these Huh? classics; "I Want to Kiss Your Aunt Lola" and "Reverend Eugene". No, I just change the words around so I can make the song fit into whatever I happen to be doing that day.

Today we weighed in.

I am down 4 1/4 pounds.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Emo Eater Thy Name is Devra


I wish it were simple and I could say "Oh, when I am stressed, I eat." Then I could work on better stress management techniques and be done with it. But it's not stress that tempts me to put ear straps on a bag of Oreos and attach it to my face like a feed bag. Nope. I eat when I am happy. Not surprisingly, I am finding this to be counterproductive to weight loss.

What did I do in my happiness today? I ate three Skinny Cow mint ice cream cones. Granted this is far better than what I used to do which was gleefully engage in a three-way with Ben & Jerry.


It is doubtful that I am alone in stomping my feet and yelling "No fair!"because I know people out there who aren't driven to stuff their pie hole based upon emotions. I want to know how you people stop at just one Oreo????? HOW! TELL ME! I WANT TO BE YOU!

Now that my tantrum is over, I'm going to sit back, relax and have a big drink.
Water people. I am drinking water!
In the future I will include a post on "Leaving the house and the importance of mapping out bathrooms locations when you actually drink the recommended daily allowance of water."

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Turning a Corner

On Thursday I reluctantly went to our workout.

I was feeling like crap. I had a headache and I was all crampy. (TMI? Sorry about that.) I was even slightly nauseous.

This is the reason working out with a partner works so well. If it has just been me I probably would have called in sick, but Devra was coming to pick me up so I went anyway, cramps and all.

We got stuck in traffic. That tends to happen when you try to go anywhere in DC so we showed up 20 minutes late to a 60 minutes session.

We jumped on the treadmill for 5 minutes (we do this to get our heart rates up) and then we started working on circuits: crunches, slams, rows, pushups, riverdance, and squats. (I'll explain riverdance and slams as soon as I get the pictures from Vionna.)Then we stretched and Devra and I went back on the tradmill for 20 more minutes.

I have to say, a while back 20 minutes (at 4.0 speed) on the treadmill would have killed me but you knopw what? I felt great. My cramps were gone, my headache was gone and I was in a much better mood.

This must be what everyone keeps talking about. In the past when people said they didn't feel right if they didn't go on their five mile run that day I thought they were smoking crack or something. But no, I was energized.

I think I am becoming a new person.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Take it From Me


Just because you are working out every day doesn't mean you can eat like a pig a still lose weight.

Take it from me.

Our daily Thursday weigh in will take place in approximately 90 minutes and I am pretty sure I have actually gained a pound even though I think I lost 8 pounds in water weight alone sweating my ass off at the Race for the Cure this weekend.

If I want to be down 10 pounds by BlogHer I am going to have to step up the dieting. I'm just bad at moderation.

Any advice?

(Who has the Fen-Phen?)

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

I Might Like You Better if We Sweat Together...

especially if we Sweat For The Cure. I'm not talking about getting all hot and bothered about this guy. I'm referring to Sarah and I walking in the Komen National Race For The Cure.
You know what was hot? The weather. But could Sarah and I even whine the least little bit? No. Why? Because this muthah was the DC Metro Moms Blogger's team captain and she is 8 months pregnant. Totally trumps us in every way.

Sarah and I both completed the 5k walk and I don't think either of us got any blisters or pulled a hamstring. We are in amazing shape. Oh yes we are! We were able to walk at a decent pace. Look, not long ago we weren't even thinking about the word "pace." This is a very good sign that our work outs are working out.

Sarah was walking with her aunt, a breast cancer survivor. I was walking in memory of my grandmother and my mother in law. In addition walking for loved ones here and gone, our team also walked in celebration of Susan, our fellow DC Metro Mom blogger who is very much HERE!

If you would like to make a donation, you can still do so. Here.

Now go check out the pics from the day:
www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing items in a set called DC Metro Moms Race for the Cure 08. Make your own badge here.

Friday, June 6, 2008

National Race for the Cure counts as cardio!

Tomorrow Sarah and I will be walking in the Komen National Race for the Cure in DC. Here is information on our team. It's supposed to be triple digits, but hopefully those will hold off until later in the day.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Driving while Under Age (80) and Dilated

I'm going to have to work way harder this week since my schedule did not allow for me to see Vionna at all.

Obviously the first thing I will have to do is Jumping Jacks for one minute. I'll also have to do 25 minutes of Cardio. Actually 27 minutes because Sarah said my piss-offedness from Monday doesn't count as cardio. I'd capitalize the entire "B" word on that, but it's too hot to move let alone shout in caps. It's also too hot to write a post that flows well, so just bear with me.

Here is what I ate today thus far:

A bottle .5L bottle of water. (Yes, technically I drank from the bottle.)

A Gyro Salad with dressing on the side. This was essentially enough iceberg lettuce to be it's own head AND mine. It was a lot of lettuce, a little red onion, two kalmata olives and no banana peppers. The banana peppers were supposed to be in the salad, but they were absent, I missed them but not enough to flag down the server to ask about it. I had the Tzatziki dressing on the side and I didn't use all of it.

An iced tea with Splenda.

Water, many many ounces of water.

I skipped breakfast. I hate breakfast. I know. Don't tell me. I actually was much thinner before anyone tried to tell me I had to eat breakfast. Eating breakfast messed me up but good. So now I am going back to my roots where I ate a mid-morning snack around 10AM with Judge Marilyn Milian.

I also skipped coffee, but that wasn't intentional. My mother is visiting and she drank all of the first pot of coffee and I didn't have time to make more then I forgot to stop for a cup on the way to the eye doctor. After the eye doctor, I decided to go directly home because my eyes had been dilated and...

This is how I rolled.


Other motorists honked at me like I've never been honked at before. Evidently when you sit low, and have to drive slow and rock these shades, assumptions are made about the age of the driver.

Ageist bastards!

Something You May Not Know About Jumping Jacks

Jumping Jacks are easy, right?

Wrong.

Oh.My.Sweet.Jesus. How wrong that is. I remember doing jumping jacks in gym and it was no big deal. It wasn't like that torture "running laps". (I just had a flashback of Coach Johnson, my sixth grade PE teacher, yelling "No Pain, No Gain!" I thought that man was a lunatic.) Jumping Jacks, Grapevine, Windmill Toe Touches... that was all the easy stuff.

I'm not kidding. Try to do jumping jacks for one full minute. Right now. I'll wait.

Are you dying? It sucks doesn't it. Who knew?

Well, besides Vionna.

You really DO learn something new every day. Today I learned that doing jumping jacks for one minute hurts.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

The Famous People I Was Up In New York Seeing For Three Seconds

My shirt clashes with the wallpaper. That is all.

And if you look carefully, you can see the bowl of fresh fruit in the background.

Just as I Suspected

It is just as I suspected. I have a big belly because I eat and drink too much.

The exercising is going really well. In fact, yesterday I had a solo workout with Vionna because Devra was stuck in New York with some famous people.

Sometimes I think that woman knows everybody.

What was I saying? Oh, right. I eat too much and I drink too much beer.

At our first work out Vionna gave us these journals where we are supposed to write down everything we eat. Mine isn't even complete and it is embarrassing.

How does Devra always put it? I have no pie hole control.

I think this whole dieting thing would be easier if everybody just stopped brewing delicious beer. And perhaps backed off on the Tootsie Roll production.

All that aside, I already feel and look better. I'm not into my size 10 jeans yet. Fine, I'm not into my size 12 jeans yet, but my 14s are looser and that counts for something. Between working out with Vionna and Devra and walking with my temporary roommate Lori, things are going in the right direction. Just imagine if I was eating well!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Loser Mom Takes A Road Trip Did She Gain Anything From It?

5:15 AM I hit the road and head north to New York City. Every time I return to my roots I do so with mixed emotions. Actually, no. I have strong emotions about it. Such as what the hell became of "Manhattan?" Now The City is referred to as New York, NY and not Manhattan, NY. I was born in Manhattan! It says so on my birth certificate. This just pisses me off. But on the plus side, my heart rate increases when I think about just how much this pisses me off, so I'll count this as cardio.(Vionna if you are reading this, say yes, please say my piss-offedness does count as cardio as long as I was pissed for 25 minutes. KThxbye.)

The drive up to MANHATTAN which by the way, I will continue to call it until you pry a road atlas from my cold dead hands, went very well. I arrived an entire hour early. This gave me time to find parking and get to the Big Daddy's Diner where I was to attend a special event with comedians/actors Bill Engvall and Tim Meadows. While neither of them are losers like Sarah and I, they both seemed like nice guys for the 5 seconds I got to talk with them. At least if I ever do contact either of them, I have a hook to yank in order to remind them of who I am, "Hey, it's Devra. The parent blogger/author/expert who drove up from DC for that New York event and got there too late because I was trafficking." Maybe some day I'll have the opportunity to meet them again, and ask the questions I wanted to ask about their show and parenting, etc.

Because I arrived late I didn't get to hang out with my gal pals Liz, Joy, and Beth but after the event I did get to have Coffee/And with new blogmigas Kim and Barbara. There were other fabulous faces at the event, but I don't have URL's to pimp so you'll just have to trust me, they were there, and they were fabulous.

While being late was definitely embarrassing (If you know me, you know I always want to be on time) a positive is breakfast service was complete. (Thank you Top Chef. I can't help but think this way. I remain yours. Totally.) So yeah, about the food. I dove into the fresh fruit right away. I didn't even use the whipped cream or whatever kind of dip it actually was, I saw it, but did not use it. The kitchen very sweetly made me some French Toast. Not only did I offer to share it with a man I only just met (He was the camera operator for the film crew at the event) when he passed on my offer, I only ate one piece of the French Toast.

I was feeling fly. (I can feel something from the 80's. Shut up.) As I said, I then went out for coffee with Kim and Barbara. Barbara graciously treated, thank you Barbara! Sadly, I was all too consumed with finding a hotel to sleep in that night, so I wasn't a decent conversationalist and wouldn't blame either of them if they found me distracted and it annoyed them on the inside. Following coffee, I headed uptown to the hotel at E. 32nd street, parked my car, dumped my suitcase and walked uptown to Tweetup at Carnegie Deli for linner with Savvy Auntie (aka Melanie) before meeting my mother at my friend Liam's comedy show "Tell Your Friends". (which if you are in New York in a Monday night, you should go. It's even FREE!)

After walking from E32nd st. & Madison to W 55th St. and 7th Avenue I was feeling groovy. For Linner, Melanie and I spit a tuna sandwich on toasted wheat. We ordered a side of fries, but I didn't eat many of them. I drank an iced tea. We schmoozed. I reversed my trip, walking back to the hotel to meet my mother.

We hopped in a cab and headed to Lolita Bar for Liam's show. I had one drink. It was fruit based, so I think I did okay on that choice. I also drank water. Score! After the show, my mother and I went out for Chinese food. Because in New York, you can do that at 11:30PM on a weeknight. We weren't even the only ones eating. We had hot and sour soup and some sort of sizzling meat dish. I ate all of the soup, which I remember from my weight watcher days won't impede my success. As for the meat dish? It was good, but not so good I had to eat all of it, so I didn't. I also left half of my bowl of rice untouched. Yay!

We hopped back in the cab to the hotel and went to bed. In the morning we got up and visited the cafe next door to the hotel and had breakfast. I had French Toast, but didn't eat all of it, plus it was the short stack, and coffee. Following breakfast we went back upstairs to our 10th floor room. The only negative about our hotel was the elevator. It took FOREVAH to come to pick us up. Once packed, I went to push the elevator button. I joked with my mother as I left our room (she was still packing) about how the elevator would probably come the second I pushed the button since she wasn't ready. And guess what? It did. I decided to let it go since I knew others would be waiting on it like we've been doing every time. Seconds later my mom pops out of the room packed and ready to go.

I informed her about how the elevator had come and I had let it go because I thought of the others below us who might need it. So we waited in silence for a long time. And then my 71 year old mother quietly observed, "You know what? You probably should have held the elevator." We were both was silent for another moment before I heard her say, "Fuck The Others." We both had a good laugh about it. Considering both of us consider ourselves to be considerate people who don't go out of our way to fuck anyone else over, especially The Others. If you can't enjoy a fuck The Others moment with your mom, then really life just isn't all that much fun, is it? Deep thought. I have another...

As I awaited the elevator, I got to thinking that "quick and fast" will get you there. However, the elevator lead me to be much more zen about it. Correction. I am much more Aesop about it. My mantra is now "Slow and steady wins the race."
Blog Widget by LinkWithin Bookmark and Share